A Hero's Welcome
by Apolla2
Summary: "He was falling, he was sure of that, but why?" A very different take on what's on the other side of the veil for Sirius. Give it a try. Read, review, enjoy...


A/N: Hello! Well, I've just kind of thought of this lately and decided it was decent so I've posted it! It's a one shot and I hope you enjoy it. Read, review, enjoy!  
  
A Hero's Welcome  
  
He was falling, he was sure of that, but why? He felt weightless, like he should be floating, high above the darkness that had consumed him, but here he was, air (if that's what it was called) whizzing by his ears. Truth be told he couldn't feel his ears, he couldn't feel anything for that matter; only a gentile pressure in his head, as if discouraging him from thinking.  
  
There were walls being put up in his mind, he could feel them. Something was invading his mind. There was beating, slow and steady like elves of a strict master pounding a thousand little hammers, securing barricades over his thoughts. He couldn't feel, he couldn't think, he couldn't even recall what had landed him in this place of eternal darkness. Just weightless, lightless, and soundlessness accompanied his downward course.  
  
A sharp pain cut through his arm and a burning on the small of his back, excruciating pain like he had never felt before. Screams of women and men, every harsh word he had ever heard, the screeching of his mother, berating and disowning him, the dreams of Lily and James dieing were vivid again, like they had been before, like they had died in front of him, lastly Harry's frightened and white face, with no Sirius to protect him. The pounding grew intense for a moment, drowning out the war of sounds, feeling, and emotion that were tearing him apart, then nothing. Nothing. Like the place between dreams and reality. He once again could feel nothing, just weightlessness.  
  
~~~  
  
"Incoming." Den said, checking his clipboard. "Hmm... interesting."  
  
"What? Nothing is interesting in this job." Herald said looking into the surrounding blackness. They were in a small bubble of source less light. The bubble had a radius of about five feet, and followed the two as they walked.  
  
"He's got no cause of death. It's not curiosity, no death wishes, no dreams of glory, just...nothing."  
  
With a sound like the bell when opening the door of a store, Sirius floated down and stopped, midair, three feet from the ground. They both walked over for closer inspection.  
  
"Whose this bloke anyway? It's been a while since we've seen anyone. Just those blasted suicidal mortal, those and the curious few that throw things down here to see were they'll go." He said, then with a gesture of his head he continued. "How many, exactly, have we thrown into that pile?"  
  
"Four thousand seven hundred twenty two."  
  
Right then a notebook came down with a clank. Herald picked it up, ready to throw. "Four thousand seven hundred and-"  
  
"WAIT!" Den said, running and snatching from his drawn back hand.  
  
"It's junk, Den, junk, as in 'goes into the junk pile'."  
  
"No, it's a message. Look." he pointed to a message scrawled in tight, flowered handwriting. He began to read. "' Dear purveyors of death and answers, My friend and confidant is about to meet you for the next portion of his adventure.'" -"Adventure, this, my batty friend, is the absence of adventure."- Herald was ignored. "I would like to tell you the nature of his coming to you. He was pushed, fallen in a battle for the life of his charge. He was the Godfather of Harry Potter, the son of his best friend and surrogate brother. He was not someone looking for peace through the veil, nor was he a curious traveler, he was trying to protect his own. Please take this into account as he joins you. Also, I would be obliged if you could notify him Harry lives and is in our care. Sincerely, Albus Dumbledore."  
  
"Who the hell is Albus Dumbledore? And, as I said before, who is this bloke?"  
  
"He's the new incoming and I'm assuming he is the godfather of this Harry fellow, seems to be quite a chap to be worth dieing for."  
  
"Doesn't seem as though he had a choice in the matter, does it? Well, what does his chart say as to the matter? Is this Albus person telling the truth?"  
  
"That's the thing I said before, nothing as to cause of death, no name, no information. This note is all we have."  
  
"Well, we'll have to do it the old fashion way." Herald said. Leaning down he took Sirius by the shoulders and shook him. "OY? OY BOY?"  
  
Sirius sputtered to life and tried to sit up, in doing so he fell with a plomp onto the cold, seamless floor.  
  
"What was that for?" He asked, rubbing his head.  
  
"We'd like to know your name, boy."  
  
"I don't know what it is, but I'd appreciate it if you would stop calling me boy." He said with a sneer.  
  
"Oh, Mr. high-and-mighty, I wouldn't be using such sass, you don't seem to be calling many shots. You're dead." Herald said with his hands on his hips.  
  
Sirius became very white. "Dead?"  
  
"Dead, D-E-A-D, dead."  
  
"I'm aware of how to spell it, I may be lacking my name, but I remember my grammar and spelling, thank you."  
  
"Stop it you two!" Den snapped. "You forgot to apply the proper charms. Apparently he's had a hard life."  
  
"Why do you say that?"  
  
"If you aren't raging with pain and anguish on the way down , you didn't die in vain. Many people throw themselves through the veil to escape horrors of their own design. If they truly deserve less pain than they were given in their life time, they are afforded peaceful travel. If they were over reacting then they are tortured with every excruciating memory they possess."  
  
"Charming, really. Well, I suppose I'm happy to report that I only experienced a few moments of agony. My back burned, as did my arm, but I'm better now."  
  
"Hmm..." Den started. "Well, let's have a look see." He got behind Sirius and lifted his shirt.  
  
"Oy? What's all this?"  
  
"Yes, I'd say! What sort of stupid tattoo is this?"  
  
"I dunno, I can't remember my name, much less a tattoo I received. Who knows, maybe I got drunk and got it done?"  
  
Intrigued, Herald went over. "A feather, a tear, and a flame. Signs of peace. Far too intelligent for this broiled beet."  
  
"I resent that."  
  
They continued. "What do they mean?"  
  
"To wizarding mortals, it's the hope, the healing, and the rebirth."  
  
"The phoenix?"  
  
At the mention of a phoenix, Sirius' tattoo burned, a soothing warmth, but it was unexpected. He stiffened and a few faces flashed before his eyes. They were too quick and blurry to identify, but he had the vaguest feeling they were friends.  
  
"Yup, as much as I hate to admit it, my boy here was in a peace loving society. Enforcers perhaps, or just like those green peace yuppies, who knows." He shrugged.  
  
"Onto the arm then?" Den suggested. Without an answer he picked up Sirius' arm and yanked the sleeve down. He gasped. "A hero?"  
  
Herald laughed. "We haven't had one of those in years. A hero who throws himself down here? Unlikely."  
  
"I suppose this means the note is true."  
  
"Well, let's check." He cleared his throat. "Dear purveyors of death, blah, blah, blah," He cleared it again. "Here we go, 'He was the Godfather of Harry Potter, the son of his best friend and surrogate brother. He was not someone looking for peace through the veil, nor was he a curious traveler, he was trying to protect his own. Please take this into account as he joins you. Also, I would be obliged if you could notify him Harry lives and is in our care. Sincerely, Albus Dumbledor.'"  
  
Herald looked up and saw Sirius crouched on the ground, cradling his head.  
  
~~~  
  
"Harry lives..." Those words had echoed for what seemed like hours. The moment they registered a flood of memories came rushing toward him. His mind ached with the breaking of barriers and images flashed before him. His mother teaching him his ancestry when he was five, his first transformation into padfoot, the great hall cheering when he was admitted to Gryffindor, James' eyes laughing silently in detention, a thousand warm memories flooded his being. His toes tingled and his fingers had warmth.  
  
~~~  
  
"My, my; he really is a hero." Herald said crossing his arms.  
  
"I figured as much. The hero symbol is never wrong." Den said checking things off his clipboard.  
  
"I suppose I'll get him up now." Herald sighed and bent down. Taking a hold of Sirius' shoulders he shook him violently.  
  
"I'm up, I'm up!" Sirius said, shaking his head. He sat for a moment, just looking down at his hands. He had seen Harry's face last. He had seen him the day they truly met and he had invited Harry to live with him. He had seen his face light up in the darkness and his eyes, so much like Lily's, glow. It reminded him of all he had left in the other world. It reminded him of all he had left back there. Herald bent again to shake him. Sirius slapped him away. "Oy, do you do this to everyone?"  
  
"No, just those who annoy me." Herald sniffed.  
  
"If you two are done, we adults have business to attend to." Den chimed in.  
  
Sirius stood up and brushed himself (quite unnecessarily, since there was no dust in this other world) off. "So what now?"  
  
"Follow that light," As Herald said this, he raised his arm and pointed. Off in the distance to where he was pointing there appeared a dim glittering light.  
  
"I never expected 'The Light' to be so dim."  
  
"We're working on a budget down here; beggars can't be choosers." Herald said priggishly. He then composed himself again. "Now as I was saying, follow that light and you'll receive your due."  
  
"That sounds a bit grim."  
  
"Only if you have a guilty conscious. As he said, it will show you your due." Den said soothingly.  
  
"So you know what, exactly, is in there?" Sirius asked a bit shakily.  
  
"Selfish mortals! You've got no tact do you? We're not mortal kid, that means we've never experienced death and we will never. Just the endless darkness in this waste. We no not from Heaven or hell. A hero's welcome from a tortured coming-" Herald spat with contempt. He would have continued if Den had not intervened.  
  
"Calm yourself. He didn't choose this life for you."  
  
"Nor did I Den! I asked only to be released from what I felt when I fell through the veil, now I know nothing. Don't you feel your senses ebbing away? I can't taste or touch. Don't you feel that?"  
  
"Herald, we were the first foolish enough to think peace lay beyond the veil. Now we care for others of our kind." Den then addressed Sirius. "We only sort death, we know nothing of it."  
  
"Sorting? Don't you think that should, you know, be the, er, Big Guy's decision?" Sirius said looking up into the darkness.  
  
"Did you expect him to be waiting just for you?" Herald said through gritted teeth.  
  
"You fell through the veil," Den said. "you're under our jurisdiction. We review your case and send you through a door." With a wide sweep a of his hand dim lights, like a thousand far off candles appeared, thier light fighting through the darkness. Then with a flick of his wrist they disappeared and one was left. "Our choice is the only one for you."  
  
"And what is mine?"  
  
"Yours is one that leads to a place where only hero's may tread. I believe you have some friends waiting-" Den said with a small smile.  
  
It took only a moment for the thoughts to sink in before he ran off, choosing four legs over two.  
  
"-waiting to give a hero's welcome." 


End file.
